Yankees release Clay Rapada, and other notes

The Yankees have granted an unconditional release to lefty reliever Clay Rapada the team announced yesterday. He was DFA’d earlier in the week so he must have cleared waivers and the Yankees didn’t think it was worth keeping a pitcher with a shoulder injury around anymore.

Rapada is the quintessential lefty matchup reliever. He held lefties to just a .186/.263/.255 line last year and was even better against them than Boone Logan. However, unlike Logan, he is horrible against righties.

The Yankees have made some questionable moves in regards to the bullpen this year. Releasing David Aardsma and keeping Cody Eppley was probably the biggest, but there was also claiming two journeymen relievers while risking the loss of David Adams (they released him, but re-signed him afterward).

This was not really one of their shadier moves though. With a shoulder injury, Rapada is pretty much the walking dead. Maybe he recovers from it, but more likely he is another Pedro Feliciano.

Plus the Yankees have left handed depth this year. Besides Logan, they also have Cesar Cabral coming back in June as well as Francisco Rondon. They could also use Vidal Nuno or Josh Spence as well. I’m not sure if any of them are better than Rapada, but his shoulder injury renders that point moot.

• If you missed it last night, Hiroki Kuroda took a comebacker off his finger. Nothing serious, X-rays were negative and it’s just bruised, but he could miss a start or two.

• Meredith Marakovits reported during last night’s game that Mark Teixeira is eyeing May 1st as his return date from a partially torn tendon sheath in his wrist. He’s said that in the past and I’ve said that seems optimistic to the point where I’m concerned he’s going to push it too much. I still feel the same way.

• On the topic of Cano and Scott Boras, Mark Teixeirasaid that Boras is good for guys that want an agent to do everything in their lives, but for guys who want more control over their decisions he’s not the best. He seemed almost happy to hear that Cano ditched Boras.

• Yankees 1st round pick from last season, righty Ty Hensley, is out 2-3 months following hip surgery to repair an impingement in his right hip. This puts him in line for a June/July return so maybe we’ll see him in Staten Island.